An Essay on “The Piano Lesson” \ The triumph of humanity can come in many forms. There are fears that every person faces in their lifetime that can hinder them from overcoming life’s obstacles. In the play, “The Piano Lesson”, by August Wilson, there were many fears and conflicts to overcome, but the strength of their family’s history enabled them to embrace the future. What the reader can gain from this play is the prominent sense of loyalty, ambition, and triumph over adversity. The character had possession of an old piano that had the carvings of their parents who were in slavery.
The Lanyard" is a reminder that ordinary objects can connect to powerful memories, and like many of Collins's poems, it shows that a poem can be funny and moving at the same time. The poem begins with a casual time marker announcing a deliberately imprecise occasion– "the other day." The speaker's mind "ricochets" slowly about the room, suggesting the abrupt turning of his thoughts, rebounding upon themselves. Moving "from typewriter to piano,/ from bookshelf to an envelope lying on the floor," the speaker is searching for something—looking mainly to words and texts—when the word "lanyard" sends him back to his childhood. With a playful allusion to Marcel Proust and the madeleine cookie that sparked his seven-volume novel, Remembrance of Things Past, the speaker returns to summer camp and the workbench where he made a plastic lanyard for his mother.
Poem Review: Week 4 Assignment Jenni Janssen ENG 125: Introduction to Literature Alex Vuilleumier January 16, 2012 Poem Review: Week Four Assignment The most enticing poems use rhythm, rhyme, symbolism, which help many readers enjoy them. These three literary elements of a poem make it easier to personalize and help the reader to visualize the picture that is being “painted”. A poem written in first person narration, which also contained persona, rhythm, rhyme and symbolism, is “My Papa’s Waltz”. This poem was written by Theodore Roethke in 1942. “My Papa’s Waltz” was composed about a young boy and his father and written in a very rhythmic form.
‘Music is the key to understanding the main characters in Maestro.’ Discuss. Music is an important part of understanding the main characters in Maestro; Music allows the reader to obtain an insight of the past Herr Keller experiences and leads into Paul Crabbe from the growth of innocence of childhood to a more realistic perception of the bigger world. A recurring symbol in Maestro is the piano, which displays the symbolic meaning of music through-out the Novella. Music brings happiness and joy to characters in Maestro, but in contrast provokes negativity upon composers that associate characters with their past. This is the reason it is evident with Herr Keller the rejection of types of music and composers in the text.
Roethke's decision to use words such as “waltzing” (line 4) and “romped” (line 5) in his poem bring about a certain energy that Hayden's poem does not. His tone is a light one, a happy one where there seems to be joy in the home and two family members that care deeply for each other and enjoy showing that appreciation outwardly. In Hayden's poem there is a darkness to the home which surfaces with descriptions such as “blueblack cold” (line 2) and describing the house so cold its “splintering, breaking” (line 6). Hayden's dark tone is brought about through the words he uses and as it echos throughout the poem the relationship between the father and his son is described. The father has already been defined as a working class man as his hands are “cracked... from labor in the weekday” (line 3) and now on this early Sunday morning he awakes to “[drive] out the cold” (line 11).
All my plays are rewriting that same story. I’m not sure what it means, other than life is hard.” This is a quote from August Wilson, author of the play The Piano Lesson. The play is not only centered around this given theme, but also the importance of family tradition. This is displayed by the butting of heads of brother and sister, Berniece and Boy Willie. In The Piano Lesson he displays multiple characters who follow this quote.
Both of the poems ‘Born Yesterday’ and Nettles’ deal with an unidealistic view focused on the inability to protect our loved ones from inevitable pain. Both Vernon Scanell and Phillip Larkin convey the theme of the lack of power to deliver happiness using the relationship between a man and a beloved child. In the poem ‘Nettles’, the relationship explored is between a father and son using the adult’s perspective whereas ‘Born Yesterday’ uses a bond between a man and his friend’s new born daughter. The first poem recalls an incident where Scanell’s young son was stung by nettles, displaying the poet’s desire to protect his son from the dangers of the world. The title ‘Nettles’ creates the thought of the severe stinging pain that the nettles produce that the reader will have experienced.
How has the distinctively visual been used in Maestro and one related text to explore themes and ideas? Through an analysis of Maestro, (1989) a novel written by Peter Goldsworthy, and an analysis of the film The Boy in Striped Pyjamas (2008) directed by Mike Herman, it is evident that the composers of these texts allow the audience to understand human experiences that alter childhood innocence and escapism through both mental and visual aspects. Childhood innocence is only lost after suffering, which in turn, allows for maturity. Paul’s pathway to maturity is described through a series of experiences, particularly with an old Viennese music teacher, Eduard Keller, or the ‘Maestro’. The use of reflective narrator in “my youthful arrogance… of course he sounded better: he had the better piano” allows Paul to make judgments on himself and conveys to us his transformation from a spoiled, self-indulged adolescent, to a more compassionate and knowledgeable adult.
Paola Santos Mrs. Clopton English 9 per. 4 Feb. 5, 2013 Poets do not write poems just because they like to write, they write them to make does certain emotions in side wake up and get touched. Poetry is not all about writing although it can change feelings that others have. The poem “Sure Rains a lot Here” is about a young solder that writes to his family on what he is going through while he was in the Vietnam War. This poem mainly is about a young man who tells lies to his family so they would not be sad about what really was going on and what their son is doing.
Maestro presents a journey of the mind and spirit as an Crabbe grows, matures, and loses his innocence while gaining experience through his relationship with his “piano tutor.”. What makes Maestro provoke an inner reflection was inter-wovenness of the ideas in the text that clarified the historical perspective of Keller’s past and Paul’s misconceptions of Keller’s social and cultural background. The contrast between Paul’s incompetence and Keller’s professionalism as a “maestro” is reflected in Paul’s inner journey, “as I climbed the wooden steps heard the sound of a piano” which from a first person narration positions the reader to perceive the success of this novel through an inner journey and a deep reflection of Goldsworthy’s cultural presentation of the lives of two people. They were worlds apart but their lives were so intriguingly intertwined through music as Paul reflected “it was the kind of music that made me stand outside the door and